Garrett Changing Weekly Schedule; Day Off Moved

IRVING, Texas - The Cowboys are switching up their weekly schedule this season, with the plan to move the players’ day off from Tuesday to Monday.

Jason Garrett said a handful of coaches around the NFL have started to make that switch and some of the assistants on this current staff have used the same schedule.

Garrett admitted he needed to be convinced as well, but now seems to be fully on board with the change.

“It’s different than anything I’ve ever done,” Garrett said. “I’ve just heard some really positive things from a lot of different people about this schedule. I think everybody initially is like, ‘You’re really doing that?’ because it’s different for everybody who’s been in the NFL. But there are so many positives that come from it that people have argued on its behalf. So we just decided to go ahead and do it.”

The biggest reasons for the change are to give the players a true day off after the game and to give the coaches more time to evaluate the film and give better feedback to the players during the overview.

Now, instead of the typical “24-hour rule” that players and coaches have gone by for years, meaning they have a full day after a game, win or lose, it’s now been extended somewhat.

“It’s more a 36-hour rule now,” said Garrett, who tried to elaborate on some of the benefits. “It just gives the players the day off after the game, so they’re kind of by themselves. It gives us as coaches more time to get ready for the players when we see them on Tuesday, maybe give them a little bit of a head start on the next opponent on Tuesday, more so than we would on Monday.

“Everyone I’ve talked to, they’ve really liked the rhythm of it. It’s a number of different places, five or six different coaching staffs I’ve visited with on this. Initially, they all had the reaction like, ‘I can’t believe we’re doing this,’ but they responded well to it and the players responded well to it.”

The regular practice schedule on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday won’t change, along with the morning walk-through Saturday. Read